Recent studies suggest that anhedonia, an inability to experience pleasure, can be measured as an enduring trait in non-clinical samples. In order to examine trait anhedonia in a non-clinical sample, we examined the properties of a range of widely used questionnaires capturing anhedonia.

Methods

887 young adults were recruited from colleges. All of them were administered a set of checklists, including Chapman Scale for Social Anhedonia CRSAS and the Chapman Scale for Physical Anhedonia Scale CPAS, The Temporal Experience of Pleasure ScaleTEPS, and The Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire SPQ.

Concerning the comparison on each item of physical and social anhedonia, the results indicated that individuals with SPD feature exhibited higher than individuals without SPD features on more items of social anhedonia than physical anhedonia scale. These preliminary findings suggested that trait anhedonia can be identified a non-clinical sample. Exploring the demographic and clinical correlates of trait anhedonia in the general population may provide clues to the pathogenesis of psychotic disorder.